Are you forward thinking, opinionated and interested in improving small business management? If so, I believe this may be a place you will enjoy. When Dr. W. Edwards Deming went to Japan in the early fifties, he found a nation that was largely destroyed. He shared with Japan a vision of management that helped to transform the Country into a world leader.

Today in the West, we see huge corporations bankrupt and crumbling. Many small businesses too are failing and even more are not profitable. I believe the Fourteen Points of Dr. W. Edwards Deming are a way out of the crisis. I met Dr. Deming in 1984 and began studying his management philosophy. The transformation to my auto repair business was astounding.

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Thank you,

Louis AltazanOwner/managerAGCO Automotive Corporation

Random Thoughts

“There are those - who for any number of reasons are simply miserable people. They seek no council nor relief that involves any effort on their part. I try to avoid adding to their misery and take no comfort in sharing it with them.”

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Hiring a Great Boss

Truly great places of employment may not be abundant, but they do exist. Unfortunately [for interested applicants] great places of employment are often fully staffed and sometimes have a waiting list of job applicants. Such places normally go far above and beyond the norm to attract the best employees.

It is human nature to search for reason in the things we observe. For instance, early on men sought to explain day and night. They reasoned since the sun was the source of light and they could see it "move" across the sky, it must revolve around the Earth. The Earth was the center of the universe. This model explained the phenomena, was very popular, widely accepted and wrong.

Marketing and management are often seen as different things. Both necessary, but somehow unrelated components of running a business. I feel this is very unfortunate and counter to what Dr. Deming tried to teach. I believe for a business to be successful, all components must be interrelated.

I think it is no accident that Deming management helped raise Japan from the ashes of WWII and never really took hold in the West. Cultural differences were certainly a factor. Japanese society has long ago realized cooperation is their best way getting ahead. Western society tends to almost exclusively reward individual effort.

Many excuses have been offered for the possible demise of the Big Three. Competition and unions are two of the favorite scapegoats. Without being overly wordy, I would like to offer a different view. I think there are ramifications applicable to any business.

I recently received an article from a friend. In it were examples of people being promoted because they did a great job. Everyone has seen examples of the great salesperson, who becomes the mediocre sales manager and so on. Still, it is in the nature of people to seek promotion, a feeling of moving ahead.

Observation of the political system can be a great aid to those who would wish to become better managers. Not in the sense of emulating the behavior or [lack of] results, rather in the way a wise man learns from a fool. That is by watching their behavior and extracting the lessons they seem incapable of learning. For instance an almost total lack of leadership. Following are a short list of observations to illustrate my point. A leader might by avoiding such behavior, become a far better leader, in my opinion.